African-American and Latino Scholarship Program

Supporting students of color to achieve academic success and fostering a culture of serious, invigorating scholarship.

After initial funding from the BHS Innovation Fund, the African-American and Latino Scholarship Program is now fully integrated into the Brookline High School curriculum.

This Program was designed to address the issue of minority student isolation impeding academic performance. AALSP has developed a corps of academically excellent African-American and Latino students who have become role models in the BHS community and has greatly raised the bar for academic and personal achievement among African-American and Latino students. Students in all four grades, each with a GPA of 2.7 or higher, participate in the program. These students have become part of a culture of achievement.

Although AALSP does not deserve sole credit, the performance improvement for this student population within BHS has been impressive:

99% of Scholars take at least one honor or AP class. The majority takes two or more.

The graduating Scholar class of 2012 earned more than 2 million dollars in scholarships for college. The graduating class of 2013 is on pace to earn even more.

One-third of all the Scholars in the graduating class of 2013 earned admission into the National Honor Society. This is a 233% increase over just 4 years ago.

Since its inception in January 2003, the AALSP has evolved from a club meeting once a week to mentoring a dozen juniors, to a comprehensive four-year program of full-credit courses for seventy-five Brookline High 9th through 12th graders. The courses meet four times a week: twice a week, students attend African-American & Latino history seminars, taught by the AALSP’s director, Stephanie Hunt; the other two periods per week are led by a math teacher and an English teacher and these sessions focus on vital academic issues — on enhancing the skills necessary to succeed in core classes, to perform well on high-stakes tests such as the SAT and the MCAS, and to prepare for applying to college.

The program’s influence is already reaching beyond the Brookline district to attract national interest; it is quickly becoming a model of how to bolster the achievement of Black and Latino students. The AALSP’s 2.7 GPA requirement makes it unique among the nation’s academic programs for students of color. Districts throughout the country have established academic support programs for students of color, but none meets Brookline’s standard of rigor and commitment. The underlying principle of the AALSP is quite simple: in order to truly become scholars, members of the program must have access to enriching activities designed to foster both knowledge of self and to bolster their hardcore academic skills. The AALSP has turned the minority achievement paradigm on its head; instead of focusing on the achievement gap and on what students of color are not doing well, the program honors academic commitment and fosters a culture of high scholastic achievement among students of color at BHS.

In order to develop this academic culture, the AALSP has three central aims:

To increase the number of students of color taking AP and honors classes,

To increase the average SAT and MCAS scores among this same group, and

To enable more students of color to earn admission into the National Honor Society.

Data collected from previous graduating classes of scholars indicate that the program is making firm inroads into all three goals. In the last two years, eleven of the AALSP’s participating students have been admitted into the National Honor Society. Moreover, the list of colleges that the two most recent graduating classes of the AASP are currently attending proves that the program works. These students are now attending: Bennett College, Boston University, Brown University, Dartmouth College, Denison University, Fordham University, Harvard University, Howard University, The University of Massachusetts, New York University, Skidmore College, Spelman College, The University of Southern California, Stanford University, Yale University, and Williams College. AALSP members have been able to excel in large part due to the efforts and intervention of the African-American and Latino Scholars Program at BHS. The AALSP inspires all students — not just those accepted into the program. It is sending the message to all students that to be smart — to be a scholar — is cool.

From AALSP Students, Class of 2013:

“I enjoy being part of AALSP because of the high expectations that push me to do my best. I want to be proud of the other members of AALSP and I also want them to be proud of me.”

“AALSP is a catalyst to me. It facilitates basically everything I do in school.”

“Moving up into AALSP was a goal for me last year. I’m glad I accomplished that goal.”

“Having the Scholars Program allows me to feel more confident about my academic work. I am able to meet with my peers and focus on school work. I can also seek help from the teacher any time I need it. The program gives me a real sense of academic community.”

“Being in Scholars means that being black is something great.”

The underlying principle of the AALSP is quite simple: in order to truly become scholars, members of the program must have access to enriching activities designed to foster both knowledge of self and to bolster their hardcore academic skills.